due to the unexpected amount of support and interest i've gotten around the world, we're taking TENGU on the road! people have hit me up about organizing their own premieres in miami, toronto, vancouver, chicago, helsinki, croatia, warsaw, paris, puerto rico, valencia, london, SF, LA, perth, brisbane... the video is even going to be part of a european film festival! thanks to everyone who has hit me up about getting a premiere going in their city. if anyone else is interested in hooking one up in their area, just email me at wcread@gmail.com and let's get things rolling!

...and for a similar reason, i'm putting TENGU up for pre-order. DVDs will be available in october, after the premieres are all over; i think the best and most fun way to experience a skate video is at the premiere, so i want to give everyone a chance to have theirs first. but for people who know they want it, it's available to pre-order now. it's cheap, and they'll be the first ones shipped! who knows, i might toss in some other stuff with the DVD. only one way to find out...http://mandibleclaw.bigcartel.com/product/tengu-gods-of-mischief-pre-order

the NYC premiere is a wrap. thanks to everyone that came out, it was an incredible night. to start off the day, we had the gallery show at salomon gallery on thursday, august 29, from 4-8 PM. it had roof and subway photos by allen ying, more photography by ben kilpatrick, cooper winterson, shoko ishida, and marco hernandez. connor displayed a stereoscopic viewer with some amazing 3D photographs. matt town ran a film projection--and a NTSC monitor--of a looping 8mm tengu interpretation. fogt finally showed his skateboard wood block print series, with each skater's old board telling a story of how it was skated. glen fox, who created all the art and titles for the video, came to NYC for his first time for the premiere, and showed a bunch of incredible tengu paintings. carlos young, john lindsay, jayme lemperle, brian downey, and bill pierce all contributed some art as well. it was all topped by mrs. kammerer, connor's mom, who showed up halfway through the event with an unbelievable plaster mask of tengu. thanks to all the artists involved, as well as everyone who helped set up the show--cooper, cole giordano, nabi, and rodrigo and gigi salomon.

tons of people came soon after we opened the gallery at 4; vita coco and popchips donated refreshments, and natalie brought a VX1000 cake; we celebrated the show and the video by cutting the cake, then i had to run to the theater ahead of everyone to get ready for the premiere.

the doors were supposed to open at sunshine theater at 8:30. i arrived at 8:15, and there were already over 200 people there. it's only a 300 seat theater. we had given out tickets at the gallery, and gave the rest out at the door, but we ran out by 8:30, and more people were coming every minute. so we had to just start letting people in, ignoring tickets completely.

by 8:40, the seat were all filled, and over 150 people were still waiting. a lot of them had been at the gallery, and had tickets, and had even helped with the video or help sponsor the event. i convinced the staff--nick, the event coordinator at sunshine cinema, was a huge help--to let us try to pack the theater's aisles, front, back, everywhere. we could have had 2 showings, but there's no way to beat the energy of everybody together in the same room at once.

when we shut the doors, it was only because you could not possibly fit another person into the theater. around 450 people jammed into a 300 seat theater. it might not have been comfortable, but the vibe was sick. sorry to everyone who still couldn't get in! and, for the first time in NYC skate premiere history, the video started on time, at 9.

i hope everyone who came to the premiere enjoyed the video. thanks again for coming out. i'll see you at the next one!